The present invention relates to an illuminating device used for lighting artwork such as paintings, photographs, tapestries, or for lighting bookcases or walls. More particularly, the present invention is a fluorescent picture lamp that is powered by batteries.
The present invention is comprised of two distinct parts:
a) a shade that houses batteries, a circuit needed to convert the dc power from the batteries to the ac power required to power a fluorescent light tube, said light tube being placed inside a reflector. The shade is designed to completely cover the fluorescent light tube from the front so that the light tube shines on the artwork without causing a glare in the eye of the person viewing the picture; and PA1 b) a bracket, that can either be attached at one end to the artwork or to the wall behind or above the artwork, the other end being attached to the shade so that the shade can be adjusted to illuminate the artwork from the front. Preferably, the bracket allows for the shade to be adjustable relative to the artwork in a lateral fashion to adjust the distance from the artwork to the shade, and also including a swivel to allow the shade to be adjusted to a proper angle.
Heretofore, varied picture lamps have been proposed, including ones that use fluorescent light tubes to attain a more uniform lighting of the picture and to cast a light whose color attributes are closer to the color attributes of natural sunlight than from an incandescent light. The more uniform lighting achieved by the use of a fluorescent light tube is due to the light being emitted from numerous points across the length of the light tube instead of from a single point source as is the case in an incandescent light. Fluorescent light tubes are also advantageous in that they illuminate the picture or artwork using an efficient lighting source that produces very little heat compared to incandescent lighting, thus being much less harmful to the artwork than the incandescent lights exemplified by U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,307,026 (Kramer); 3,475,603 (Gheno); 3,723,720 (Schmidt); 3,786,245 (Cincotta); D312,703 (Muller); and Exposures Catalog, Spring 1995, Page 20.
Picture lamps have also been proposed that are battery operated, such as the Advent Cordless picture light (Listed under "Other Publications" in the Information Disclosure Statement), that house the batteries in the same housing as the lamp, but this picture lamp uses an incandescent bulb where the light output/battery life are only about one fifth of the effciency of a lamp using a fluorescent light tube. Further, this picture lamp requires the user to pull the entire inside of the fixture out in order to access the plastic battery holder when the batteries need to be replaced.
Some fluorescent picture lamps that have been proposed heretofore (see U.S. Pat. Nos., 5,165,783 (Barron, Sr.) and 5,303,127 (Kosann)) are powered by conventional household electricity, along with a cord to be connected to the household electric line, or by being plugged into a household electric socket. The unsightliness of the power cord leaves the user with the choice of either masking the cord by covering it, which requires effort in installation and leaves a cord cover visible; or, the choice of going through the lengthy and difficult installation process of routing the wire behind the wall and also connecting the power to the cord from behind the wall.
Fluorescent light tubes powered by either conventional batteries or rechargeable batteries (see U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,331,958 (Adler) and 4,268,894 (Bartunek)) have also been proposed due to the much greater efficiency of the fluorescent lamp in applications that demand more light and more life from the use of a limited power source. However, these lamps have been made and configured for use as emergency lights or other uses where conventional household electricity is not available, such as in a light to be used while camping, and their configurations do not lend themselves to the lighting of pictures.
A fluorescent lamp has also been proposed that contains a space for batteries in the fixture with the lamp underneath this space such as the "The Original Wireless Wonder" (Listed under "Other Publications" in the Information Disclosure Statement), along with a mounting bracket that is attached to the side of the shade. This device is akin to a box (for the batteries), with a bare fluorescent light tube (although the light tube is covered, it is covered with a transparent piece of pastic) mounted to the underside of the said box. This aspect of the device makes it unsuitable for lighting pictures because the light from the light tube radiates equally in a forward direction as in a backward (toward the object to be lit) direction. The glare caused is particularly objectionable in the case of a picture lamp, where the end result is to light a picture with the least of other distractions to the eye. If the device is turned to have the light tube face the picture, the disadvantage of this device is that it casts an equal amount of light above as well as on to the picture (wasting half the light on the wall), and the mounting arm of the lamp creates a large shadow. This device also has the disadvantage of requiring the removal and installation of a screw in order to change the light tube.
A fluorescent picture lamp has also been proposed heretofore (see Great Britain Patent 1,561,543 (Jewson)), that is powered by batteries. A disadvantage of this picture lamp is that the batteries are received in a box that is hidden behind the picture, resulting in the picture being hung on the wall with a gap of at least approximately 1.5 inches between the wall and the picture frame. This gap causes a distinct decrease in the aesthetic appeal of a picture that utilizes such a picture lamp.
The inventor has also made application for a wall mounted picture lamp that uses batteries, (application Ser. No. 08/550,830) which is entirely different from the present invention in that it includes a box to hold the batteries, the box being mounted to the wall.
The present invention has the flexibility of being easily mounted either on the wall or on the picture frame, at the discretion of the user, after the user has assessed the type of wall and picture frame in question. The present invention also describes a means by which the light tube, in relation to the batteries, is located in a general horizontal direction rather than a vertical direction. This aspect of the invention is entirely new in that none of the prior art describes such an arrangement of batteries to light tube. The advantage of this arrangement is that the light tube can be recessed further into the housing, so that it causes no glare when viewed from the front, and causes minimal reflective glare from the picture surface, while at the same time provides for a minimal vertical profile to the shade when viewed from the front, so as to cause the least distraction from the picture to be viewed.